Before I was aware of International Women’s Day and the women’s rights movement, the 8th of March meant only one thing to me. My gran’s birthday.
Grandma Montse was the matriarch of our family and the reason I became a horror writer. She never learnt to read nor write but was a gifted storyteller that spooked young and old with creepy stories passed down through generations. Given the opportunity, I believe she’d have been a reader and a writer.
Grandma passed away when I was 12 years-old. I watched it all happened from my hiding spot under the living room table as my family set up her death bed in the same room she used to tell me stories.
It’s hard to lose someone so important so early in life. Gran was the one person that accepted me for who I was and encouraged me to keep doing what I loved: Reading and writing. Grandma Montse would have been 85 years old today. She taught me to be brave and to embrace the darkness in my soul.
A darkness I share with my peer women horror writers. Emerging and established writers from all over the world thriving and leaving a path for the rest
of us to follow. Grandma would be proud I look up to such strong women. Today may be International Women’s Day and last month may have been Women in Horror Month, but to me, you ladies should be celebrated every day.
-Silvia Brown
Silvia is a member of the Australasian Horror Writers Association. You can find her on twitter here and on her personal website here